Hamas shares ‘cruel’ video of ex-hostage Iair Horn embracing still-captive brother before his release
Hamas shared a new propaganda video Saturday showing now-freed hostage Iair Horn embracing his still-captive brother, Eitan, and saying good-bye just before his release.
The three-minute clip showed the haggard brothers dressed in ratty clothes and seated in a room with American-Israeli former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, as well as an additional two hostages whose faces were blurred. Hamas still holds 59 hostages; Israel believes that about 24 of them are still alive.
Over haunting music, Iair Horn, 46, hugs the two other captives before embracing his brother.
“I am very happy that my brother will be released tomorrow, but this is not logical in any way, to separate families,” Eitan Horn said.
“Get everyone out and do not separate families. Do not destroy all our lives.”
Horn and Dekel-Chen, 36, were released alongside fellow captive Alexander Troufanov, 29, on Feb. 15 under the first stage of the hostage-for-cease-fire deal.
The Horn family said in a statement their hearts broke seeing Eitan having to say goodbye to his brother, only to remain captive in “Hamas hell” now for 512 days.
“Since Iair returned to us, he hasn’t stopped thinking about and working for Eitan and all the other hostages he met in captivity who are still there,” they said, before demanding the “decision-makers” ensure all the hostages’ release
“Bring everyone home, now, in one phase.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office slammed the footage as the latest piece of “cruel propaganda” from the terror group.
“The Hamas terrorist organization has, this evening, disseminated another cruel propaganda video in which our hostages are forced to engage in psychological warfare,” the PM’s office said.
“We will continue to act relentlessly for the return of all of our hostages and until all objectives of the war are met,” it added.
The video’s release came as the first phase of the cease-fire deal expired Saturday, with Hamas claiming that it had not made any progress with Israel on negotiations for the second phase of the truce.
During the initial six-week truce, 33 Israeli hostages were released, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
